Getting Ready For FGU

[Patou]

Hi Team FG,

I'm going to be shopping for a new laptop during the holidays and I wanted to know if there was anything I need to worry about in order to run a future version of FG? Such as ram and graphics?

Thank you:)

[OTG_Wraith]

Well, the specifics are not yet released but a generic system requirements would start at the minimums for Unity 5, which can be found here (https://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements). They aren't very demanding at all.

[Patou]

Well, the specifics are not yet released but a generic system requirements would start at the minimums for Unity 5, which can be found here (https://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements). They aren't very demanding at all.

Thanks:)

[Trenloe]

I'd say RAM will be important - if you plan on having a lot of images, etc.. The current maximum memory use of approx. 3.5GB will not be present in Unity version.

[Patou]

I'd say RAM will be important - if you plan on having a lot of images, etc.. The current maximum memory use of approx. 3.5GB will not be present in Unity version.

8GB or more should be enough?

[Trenloe]

8GB or more should be enough?
Do you only ever run one instance of FG on the computer? What other applications do you run when using Fantasy Grounds? How many modules, maps, etc. will you be using?

I'd say 8GB will be the absolute bare minimum. If you want to be able to run FG (and other Windows applications) into the future then I'd recommend getting more - or at least making sure you can expand the current memory easily.

[Patou]

Do you only ever run one instance of FG on the computer? What other applications do you run when using Fantasy Grounds? How many modules, maps, etc. will you be using?

I'd say 8GB will be the absolute bare minimum. If you want to be able to run FG (and other Windows applications) into the future then I'd recommend getting more - or at least making sure you can expand the current memory easily.

Noted..more = better
I run one instance of FG. However I also run my browser with multiple tabs open, OneNote, and sometimes Tokentool for last minute tokens i need.

thanks:)

[Patou]

Ram = 16GB DDR4 good?
Graphics = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5 okay?

[Springroll]

Ram = 16GB DDR4 good?
Graphics = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB GDDR5 okay?
Yes, that should be quite OK

[Patou]

Awesome

The last thing I want is to buy a new laptop and end up having it not meeting up to FGU when it comes out. I'm investing in my basement and hobby so for me this counts a great deal.

When u have a passion u want the best out of it.

Thanks

[Bidmaron]

If you have an SSD virtual memory should be pretty fast, and you might not even notice the difference relative to more RAM.

Trenloe, isn't that pretty much true? As I understand it, the problem is an address space limitation due to 32bit system.

To take advantage of FGU, I think you would have to also have the 64bit system of the OS installed. I wonder if wine is 64 bits?

[Patou]

If you have an SSD virtual memory should be pretty fast, and you might not even notice the difference relative to more RAM.

Trenloe, isn't that pretty much true? As I understand it, the problem is an address space limitation due to 32bit system.

To take advantage of FGU, I think you would have to also have the 64bit system of the OS installed. I wonder if wine is 64 bits?

You guys know a lot more about this stuff then I do. I simply don't want to get screwed doen the road:)

So.. this said I'm shopping for a laptop that's going to last me awhile like my Acer Aspire did. Still using now and it's only got 4GB ram. However not too effective for gaming. Trying to stay beĺow $1000 but I'm afraid I 'm going to half to bust.

[LordEntrails]

You guys know a lot more about this stuff then I do. I simply don't want to get screwed doen the road:)

So.. this said I'm shopping for a laptop that's going to last me awhile like my Acer Aspire did. Still using now and it's only got 4GB ram. However not too effective for gaming. Trying to stay beĺow $1000 but I'm afraid I 'm going to half to bust.
FG/FGU will probably not be your limiting or deciding factor when it comes to computer specs if you intend to do any other gaming with it. FGs really not very intensive when it comes to computer resources, it just has a few idiosyncrasies with the current architecture which FGU should resolve.

I would suggest you search any other game forums you use and the graphics card(s) your considering to see how people there like them.

[Trenloe]

If you have an SSD virtual memory should be pretty fast, and you might not even notice the difference relative to more RAM.

Trenloe, isn't that pretty much true?
Not really, no. RAM is a lot more efficient than paging out/in to/from the swap file on disk - even is that disk is a SSD drive.

The 32-bit address space limitation goes away with FGU - so it should be much easier for people to open more and bigger maps, more modules, more tokens, etc. - all that will take up more RAM. Hence why I said get more RAM.

[Patou]

FG/FGU will probably not be your limiting or deciding factor when it comes to computer specs if you intend to do any other gaming with it. FGs really not very intensive when it comes to computer resources, it just has a few idiosyncrasies with the current architecture which FGU should resolve.

I would suggest you search any other game forums you use and the graphics card(s) your considering to see how people there like them.

Hey Lord:)

I'm not much of a video gamer except for on console. Laptop will be just for creating stuff via mapping software, use of Office tools and FGU of course.

Thanks for all the follow-ups by the way all:)

[dulux-oz]

FYI I picked up a nice little 15.6" Hybrid Samsung 7 Spin under 12 months ago for around $1100US (brand new off ebay with a small discount) - 940 Video Card, 16 Mb Ram, 1 Tb HDD and a 256Mb SDD, with an Intel I7 chip. Its going great, handles Unity 5 without any issue, plus all my other professional-level coding and work duties, plus HDD videos, games, etc - I love it, and well worth the money.

Details: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-laptops/notebook-series-7/notebook-7-spin-156-16-gb-ram-np740u5l-y03us/

[Patou]

FYI I picked up a nice little 15.6" Hybrid Samsung 7 Spin under 12 months ago for around $1100US (brand new off ebay with a small discount) - 940 Video Card, 16 Mb Ram, 1 Tb HDD and a 256Mb SDD, with an Intel I7 chip. Its going great, handles Unity 5 without any issue, plus all my other professional-level coding and work duties, plus HDD videos, games, etc - I love it, and well worth the money.

Details: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-laptops/notebook-series-7/notebook-7-spin-156-16-gb-ram-np740u5l-y03us/

Ouuuuuuuu thanks Mr.D:) we'll definitely check that out

[Nylanfs]

Patou, if you want to order direct I've had several laptop pro's suggest XMG or Schenker.

https://www.mysn.de/

[damned]

Not really, no. RAM is a lot more efficient than paging out/in to/from the swap file on disk - even is that disk is a SSD drive.

The 32-bit address space limitation goes away with FGU - so it should be much easier for people to open more and bigger maps, more modules, more tokens, etc. - all that will take up more RAM. Hence why I said get more RAM.

Remember that shared images etc will also have to be loaded by players.
Just because the GM can load massive images doesnt mean the players can too...

[Patou]

Patou, if you want to order direct I've had several laptop pro's suggest XMG or Schenker.

https://www.mysn.de/

Nice... a lot like something I'm looking at from Canada Computers web site
https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_1198&item_id=108820&sid=b1tgue97be3qg2v6jq7ma3mnh4

[JohnD]

I may be picking up a new system in the near future as well. This thread has been useful.

Haven't made a computer purchase (new PSU aside) since 2010 so this will be an interesting leap forward.

[Mellock]

940 Video Card, 16 Mb Ram, ... a 256Mb SDD

You what now? Are you getting FG to run on windows 3.1? :D :D

[jasonthelamb]

FYI I picked up a nice little 15.6" Hybrid Samsung 7 Spin under 12 months ago for around $1100US (brand new off ebay with a small discount) - 940 Video Card, 16 Mb Ram, 1 Tb HDD and a 256Mb SDD, with an Intel I7 chip. Its going great, handles Unity 5 without any issue, plus all my other professional-level coding and work duties, plus HDD videos, games, etc - I love it, and well worth the money.

Details: https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-laptops/notebook-series-7/notebook-7-spin-156-16-gb-ram-np740u5l-y03us/


16 Mb RAM and 256 Mb SSD.... what is this, alternate reality 1980?

[dulux-oz]

16 Mb RAM and 256 Mb SSD.... what is this, alternate reality 1980?

Yes yes, very amusing - I've been in ICT game so long that when its late and I'm tired my fingers type on their own, and obviously the "muscle memory" reverts back to over 30 years of experience and types "M" instead of "G".

And for the record they didn't start selling consumer-level boxes with 16 Mb of RAM until around 1995 (for Windows 95) - at the time I bought the first Pentium 90 sold in Australia and had to get three 512 Mb HDDs - that's right, Mb - because they didn't make HDDs any bigger, so I had to order a 415 Watt PSU especially to power it all - the three HDDs, the 4X SCSI CD-ROM, the 1 Mb Video Card, the 16-bit SoundBlaster Sound Card, and the 16 Mb of RAM - all special orders and built by your'se truly.

At the time a "power user's" PC was a Pentium 60, 8 Mb RAM, 2X CD-ROM, 8-bit Sound Card and a single 512 Mb HDD. People said I was out of my head buying such an over-powered machine and that I'd never use it all - I was doing some intense compiling and also some 3D graphics work at the time, so yes, I used every bit of it, and it was well worth what I spent on it (don't ask - I don't have a first-born anymore - 'nuff said).

Now shut up and get off my damn lawn!

[Andraax]

Hey, when I started in this business a 10MB hard drive was considered "high capacity".

Edit:

This is similar to one of the first machines I worked on. Those two big boxes in front are drop-in 10MB hard disk drives.
https://www.ruleworks.co.uk/digital/images/ncr-century-mainframes.jpg

[LordEntrails]

This was my first home computer, we had the 4k memory upgrade!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Commodore-VIC-20-FL.jpg/300px-Commodore-VIC-20-FL.jpg

Prior to that, we had these (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#/media/File:Commodore_2001_Series-IMG_0448b.jpg) at school, never thought of it at the time, but we were probably pretty lucky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#/media/File:Commodore_2001_Series-IMG_0448b.jpg

[Andraax]

We had the Pet in the Chemistry dept at my university. But we had the "SuperPet" model, which had like 6 languages pre-installed (IIRC).

Yeah, here we go:

including BASIC 4.0 and other programming languages (Waterloo microAPL, microFORTRAN, microBASIC, microPASCAL, microCOBOL), and microEDITOR a modal text editor

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Commodore_SuperPET_SP9000_%28Thomas_Cont%C3%A9%29. jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#SuperPET_9000_series

[midas]

I remember buying a 170MB Conner hard drive for my old Packard Bell 386 and thinking I was set for life. Then I started buying add-on courses for Links 386 golf and every time I wanted to install one I had to delete more and more of Windows 3.1. "calc.exe? I have a calculator in my drawer." *delete*

[Andraax]

This was my first home computer. Had to learn Assembly to program it.

https://oldcomputers.net/pics/Aim-65-left.jpg

[JohnD]

I remember buying a 170MB Conner hard drive for my old Packard Bell 386 and thinking I was set for life. Then I started buying add-on courses for Links 386 golf and every time I wanted to install one I had to delete more and more of Windows 3.1. "calc.exe? I have a calculator in my drawer." *delete*

I was in a similar situation. That was a great game.

[LordEntrails]

This was my first home computer. Had to learn Assembly to program it.

https://oldcomputers.net/pics/Aim-65-left.jpg
Will it run FGU?

[Bidmaron]

My first permanent storage on the aim 65 I had at work was cassette.my first hard drive I owned was 5megabytes and cost $3,500. It was Apple. It was about 10” deep 4” high and 18” wide

[dulux-oz]

Anyone remember the 8" floppy disks (& drives)? I had one early on (got it 2nd-hand at a swap meet), and I think its capacity was around 256Kb. I had to hack the "driver" in assembly to get the damn thing to work with my 1st ever computer, an Amiga 500 (circa 1987) - gawd, was that a pita.

My dad brought home from work an Apricot Computer (Apple knock-off) in the early 1980s, and with that and the Apple II's, Apple IIc's and Apple IIe's at high school I got into computing big-time. Then, at my first day of University (again 1987) they introduced us to the DEC PDP 10s and the wonders of Unix, Pascal and C.

Ahh, memories :square:

And I remember the drop-in 10 Mb HDs - they always reminded me of top-loader washing machines (and the damn disks were as big as a washing machine drum).

And today my phone's got more storage and computer power than the lot of 'em - and it still won't run FG, let alone FGU!

And I said get of my damn lawn!

[Octavious]

Mine was an Atari 800 I eventually upgraded from the cassette to the 5 1/4 Floppy.. and Andraax . I too taught myself assembly language.. the Atari like that Rockwell used the 6502 MPU I still remember the code .. LDA #$FA STA $A000 LDX #$10 INX and so on.. boy those were the days..

[Bidmaron]

I worked for Rockwell at the time and so we had those AIM 65s out the wazoo at work, but I had an Apple II+ at college (and then an Apple /// if anyone even remembers what those were).

[Ctmega]

I was an Atari 800 guy too... I had the sweet 400 baud acoustic coupler modem as well... Ran Basic off a cartridge.

[nzl_nyc]

Is there an estimated date for when FG with the Unity Engine will be released ?

[dulux-oz]

Is there an estimated date for when FG with the Unity Engine will be released ?

Nope, only speculation on our part. Smite Work's policy is to not give ETAs because of the possibility of "things coming up" - they're a bit like Blizzard in this regard. They're a small company with a lot of work to do, so we've all just got to be parient, I'm afraid.

Still, we can dream and hope... :)

The standard Community advice is dive into FG now, cause its really good as it is, and its only gonna get better

Cheers

[Nyghtmare]

My first computer was a Commodore 128... a "souped up" Commodore 64.

I definitely got a lot of mileage out of that sucka!

[Erin Righ]

My first computer was an Apple in 1978, actually belonged to my uncle who owned 3 home computers

[Oberoten]

First machine I had was a Sinclair ZX80... it had to shut down the screen while doing calculations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX80

[Patou]

My first was a TRS80 Color Computer22093

[damned]

When I first started playing D&D my friends all had Vic20s and I thought they were amazing.
It was probably 8 years later before I got my first computer...

[Wintermute]

The Vic-20s were great machines. I truly enjoyed the entire Commodore line from Vic-20, C64, C128 and one Amiga, but the VIC-20 was always my favorite.

[rob2e]

Timex Sinclair 1000 (1982), Atari 400 (1983), Atari 800 (1984), TRS-80 Modle IV (1985), Commodore 128 (1987), and then various IBM clones starting with an 8088 since then. Now - HP Envy 17 Notebook (2015).

I grew up lower middle class. We were not well off, but I saved every penny I earned and put it all toward video games and computers. Mom would say, "Rob you need a new pair of jeans."

"Can I patch that hole and put that money toward my next computer?"

I need a new computer, mine is 2+ years old.

Anyway... FG Unity!

[Bonkon]

My first computer was a Commodore 64 that I bought while stationed in Germany around 1986.
I also bought Ultima IV as my first program and lost many nights of sleep playing it. The graphics and story were so incredible. I also learned the valuable lesson to save your game often, especially when sleep deprived and a few German beers are in your belly! :)

[LordEntrails]

... I also learned the valuable lesson to save your game often, especially when sleep deprived and a few German beers are in your belly! :)
Germans trying to take over the world again! This time via beer!!!

[dulux-oz]

Germans trying to take over the world again! This time via beer!!!

How dare they! That's the Australians' job!

[Erin Righ]

Personally, I am a fan of Belgian Beers, those blokes know how to drink. I picked up a 12 pack of Belgian Light Blonde Ale, and it was 8.5% (17 proof for you yanks).

[Andraax]

Personally, I am a fan of Belgian Beers, those blokes know how to drink. I picked up a 12 pack of Belgian Light Blonde Ale, and it was 8.5% (17 proof for you yanks).

We only use proof for distilled beverages...

[Erin Righ]

We only use proof for distilled beverages...

Thanks didn't know that

[Andraax]

Thanks didn't know that

We use ABV for beer and wine. Here is the display off my (recently acquired) homebrew robot when I was making a batch of IPA.
https://s3.silent-tower.org/images/IMG_20180202_132724.jpg